The Courage to Teach

In this article, the author has talked about all the issues that teachers in India are facing nowadays. The personal, financial, political, economic, and social issues are discussed. The toil it takes on the teacher and yet them standing as a pillar for the students. This article does not glorify teaching by calling teachers second parents; it sees teaching as an undervalued profession. It also talks about the positives that teachers enjoy and how that small moment of happiness is enough for the teachers to continue. And despite all the problems faced by teachers, they cannot hate their jobs. This is the courage we teachers have, which hardly anyone else has.

Despite facing significant systemic challenges, low salaries, and high rates of clinical burnout, an Indian educator explains why they still find the courage to teach, grounding their hope in profound moments of connection with students, a dynamic that underpins the diverse professional makeup pictured here.

I am a teacher, and I am courageous.

Today, I was upset about something that happened at home. I cried throughout the commute, and I didn't even talk to any of my colleagues because I knew that if they saw my puffy eyes, they were going to ask questions and I would start crying again.

Still, I went to my class and forgot about all the pain and sorrows and taught my students. When I came out of the class, all of it hit me again, and I cried my way back to my home as well.

This is my courage. This is my strength. I am able to snap back into my work as a teacher, no matter what I've been through half an hour prior to that.

I have a huge respect for all the teachers in the world, now that I've become one myself. Cross-sectional mental health studies on Indian educators show that roughly 33.3% to 48% of teachers report high levels of clinical burnout symptoms. Teachers in India particularly spend a lot of time doing non-teaching duties along with their teaching duties.

The census data collection, the election duties, among others, are a huge task for the teachers. Recently, the collection of SIR no. as well exhausted the teachers and a few of the teachers committed suicide because of the workload and harsh deadlines. And apart from these, there are harsh teaching duties that teachers face. I am not saying that teachers should get it all on a silver platter.

However, teachers deal with large classes and back-to-back lectures every single day. Especially in private schools, the conditions teachers are supposed to teach in are worsening day by day. The long hours, high workload of making worksheets, exam question papers, paper corrections of multiple classes and subjects, dealing with top-level managers' attitudes and corporate politics are some of the things teachers face every single day.

Apart from this, the chillar salaries that teachers get are horrifying. In some well-established private schools, well-experienced teachers get only Rs.15000 a month, and if they're involved in some higher duties, they get Rs. 20000. There are hardly any schools that pay their teachers well. There's a meme going around on social media about how the security guard who distributes tea gets a higher salary than the teachers of private schools.

As the pay is too low, there are very few males involved in teaching, especially in pre primary and primary sections. The secondary or higher secondary levels have male teachers, but there too the gender discrepancy is very visible. Teaching is seen as a feminine profession. There are still many women from lower economic backgrounds and minorities who are only allowed to work as teachers, saying that teachers only have to work for six hours. They forget the extra work that teachers do so that they can teach the next day. Patriarchy has made teaching look easy.

"The Tamil Nadu School Education Department initiated disciplinary action against officials after a controversial circular asked headmasters in Cuddalore to fund the Kamarajar Breakfast Scheme from their own pockets." This is an excerpt from a news article I read today. How horrifying it is for teachers. We put teachers on a pedestal and call them our second parents, but fail to give them basic respect and treat them as extraordinary beings, as if teaching is not a profession but a non-economic activity done by the teachers for social welfare.

There is a new series released on Amazon Prime called "Aadarsh Baal Vidayala"; it talks about a lot of problems faced by the teachers of government schools in India and how they deal with them in a humorous way. The shortage of funds, the crumbling infrastructure, the political interference, and tight budgets for schools, etc., are some of the problems reflected in this show.

Apart from personal and professional problems, there is the disrespect faced by teachers. Nowadays the parents of students insult teachers here and there; even the students find ways to disrespect the teachers, and the schools do not even acknowledge the disrespect being done by the parents whose children's minds we teachers are shaping. Sometimes the students have such big attitude problems that it feels impossible to deal with them on a regular basis; the school authorities blame the teachers for any unlawful event that occurs in class. The students at times take teachers for granted. This year, the students did not even wish me for teacher's day and I felt so hopeless and I doubted every day whether I am a good teacher or not. But then, I realised that this generation, who is so self-involved, could have forgotten that it was Teacher's Day, and I let it go. Then something happened yesterday which filled my heart with hope and happiness.

Yesterday, when I went to my class, the students saw me and took a breath of relief. Even though there are some students and parents who do not consider teachers and their efforts to shape them into better human beings, there are still at least 20% of students in every classroom who give us respect, hope, and make our day.

And honestly, that percentage is enough. It has to be, because those are the moments that stay with us teachers far longer than the difficult ones do. Despite all these problems faced by teachers, there is still a lot to look forward to for us teachers. A student meets us years later to greet us and tell us how much they miss us. A quiet kid finally participates because they finally feel safe enough in front of the entire class and us. A parent saying thank you and meaning it. The satisfaction we attain after a good day of teaching, the look on our students' faces after they have enjoyed a lecture that they thought would be boring. Helping a struggling student and them acknowledging the help, the happiness that we teachers get after knowing that our students are doing well in their lives, the impact we have on our students and the way they love us in their own clumsy, unfiltered, teenage way.

These moments do not erase the fatigue or the disrespect, but they still do something else; they remind us about why we chose this in the first place, and why, even on the worst days, we feel a bit hopeful. There is a kind of joy in teaching that cannot be put into words that easily, but it shows up in small ways. A classroom that finally feels comfortable enough to laugh with us, walking into a room full of familiar smiling faces, the inside jokes, the students expressing themselves in their own ways, them blending into the environment easily, are all the small rewards we teachers love.

Although teachers today are facing so many problems in their lives and the destructive practices going on in schools, institutes, colleges, and universities, and the pay is so low, if we put all these frustrations aside as teachers and try to hate our jobs, we cannot. As teachers, the only good thing in our lives is that we are teachers. We have the courage to teach despite the exorbitant practices going on in the Indian education system.